The fact that San Francisco has its own flag is news to me, but I'm sure not to all of you, and in light of this classes focus on nationalism and imperialism I thought it was worth looking into. We have talked about empire, conquest, patriotism and more in lecture and section, and many of the readings, for example
Imperial San Francisco and
Reclaiming San Francisco explicitly discuss nationalism. But it also seeps through in the other books, such as Ginsberg's "America," and in
Tripmaster Monkey with national identity, or in
An Army of Lovers with poetry as patriotism. The point being that there are many ways to express nationalism and many ways that it gets incorporated into daily life, a theory called "Banal Nationalism" coined by Michael Billig. The approach of banal nationalism emphasizes the importance of everyday over-looked forms of nationalism or national simples, like flags. In the United States, and San Francisco especially (once known as "the city of flags"), flags are everywhere, in schools, at gas stations, on peoples front porches. Yet we are not required to recognize or salute each of these flags, they go unnoticed, or as Billig calls "unwaved."
The San Francisco flag was officially adopted on December 16th in 1940, but has existed since 1900 when then mayor James Duval Phelan suggested the city have a flag and motto. The flag itself depicts a phoenix rising from the ashes or flames, which is taken to symbolize the cities rebirth after the fires of 1852, and can be applied to the earthquakes and fires that have wracked the city since then. It is a testament to the strength and un-vanquishable character of San Francisco. Below the phoenix is a banner with the city motto in spanish, reading "Gold in Peace, Iron in War." In 1900 this would have been relevant to the Spanish-American War and the use of San Francisco as the military launching base to access the Philippines. This motto is also why the official city colors are gold and black. I think there is much to be said about the symbolism of San Francisco as a phoenix always reborn, warm and gold in good times and cold and iron in tough times. The flag lends itself to imagining the city as an empire.
It is interesting to see such an obvious remaining symbol that San Francisco was built very strategically for resources and for military. It is weird that we consider the city a hub for art and acceptance and the flag and motto in no way reflects this. It seems ax though the city will never truly belong to the people.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy conversations about the idea of Banal Nationalism in the United States. The prevalence of American and state flags, and the requirement of the "Pledge of Allegiance" to be recited at schools are two major example of the type of nationalism that goes relatively unnoticed in this country. Often these examples are passed off as examples of patriotism, and disagreement with them can be seen as "Unamerican," Though they seem to have an uncanny similarity to brainwashing
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy conversations about the idea of Banal Nationalism in the United States. The prevalence of American and state flags, and the requirement of the "Pledge of Allegiance" to be recited at schools are two major example of the type of nationalism that goes relatively unnoticed in this country. Often these examples are passed off as examples of patriotism, and disagreement with them can be seen as "Unamerican," Though they seem to have an uncanny similarity to brainwashing
ReplyDeleteSan Francisco's flag is a symbol of the militaristic beginnings of the city as well as its rise to imperialism. I'm glad you brought this forth for discussion because it really is representative of what we have learned about SF's contradicting forces.
ReplyDelete